The participants visited the newly built breeding farm Aviagen Turkeys, a long-term partner of Gerczak Nord-Pol Hatchery, where they got acquainted with the applied biosecurity solutions. They also took part in a seminar on, among others, the program of current genetic selection of turkeys.
In December representatives of our company together with leading turkey producers from Poland visited Great Britain. The program was extremely interesting in terms of the content. One of its elements was a seminar with representatives of Aviagen Turkeys, with whom Gerczak Nord-Pol Hatchery has been cooperating for many years. It was started by the Managing Director Clay Burrows, who introduced the company and its activities in the development of BUT-6 turkeys.
The head of the Research and Development Department, Dr. John Ralph, presented the current genetic selection program and future directions for the selection of heavy breed turkeys. A special discussion was triggered by the topic of the importance of the physical quality of feed for feed conversion and the final slaughter results.
As part of the lecture by Dr. Carlo Norci, the latest performance results of BUT-6 turkeys in Poland and Italy were presented, with particular emphasis on the feeding test with feed with reduced component value carried out by one of the Italian companies on approx. 10 million turkeys. It turned out that with savings on feed composition, the results in terms of feed conversion, the survival of turkeys and their final weights and slaughter yields, did not differ from the results achieved by turkeys fed with complete mixtures. It should be emphasized that the savings on feed obtained as a result of this treatment amounted to 3.5 million euros.
The Head of the Genetic Program, Dr. Valentin Kremer presented the goals and the method of genetic selection of BUT-6 turkeys, highlighting the benefits of feeding and watering stations that record the consumption of feed and water by individual birds. He also talked about the programme of selecting birds on a multi-age farm with a reduced level of biosecurity and excessive density, which aims to select the individual birds which do best at such farms. Finally, Richard Hutchinson presented the turkey market trends in Europe.
On the second day of the visit, we visited the newly built Aviagen Turkeys breeding farm, where Dr. Kenton Hazel presented the adopted biosecurity and technological solutions of the facility, from which parent flocks will be delivered to the Gerczak Nord-Pol Hatchery.
The visit also included an integration part, which consisted of a visit to the historic town of Chester, and finally, participation in the Champions League match at Anfield Road: Liverpool vs. Napoli. This event was a great experience for all the participants, who enjoyed the atmosphere at the stadium and the enthusiasm of the fans.
Due to the positive reception of such trips, it should be assumed that December trips to England will enter the permanent schedule of industry integration.
